[media-credit name=”Photo by Gerard McGovern/Getty Images” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit] Actress Anne Hathaway poses for photographers in her Prada gown as she arrives at the Oscars on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California.

When David Meister was in town recently to show his spring collection of evening gowns at Neiman Marcus, he helped demystify some of what goes into dressing A-listers for the red carpet. Several of his gowns were worn by actresses at the Academy Awards and related parties, including Melissa McCarthy, Jane Seymour, Marcia Gay Harden and “Access Hollywood’s” Shaun Robinson.

The stakes are high, Meister says, because the mention of a designer’s name to an entertainment reporter at such an event is worth huge amounts of publicity — and dollars — when women start looking for that dress or a similar look from the brand. “For the Oscars, the whole world is watching. It has global reach,” he says of the show.

Meister works with a Los Angeles-based agency, Film Fashion, that connects designers and celebrities, does publicity and handles all facets of the red carpet routine. Fashion houses will have a number of looks available to Film Fashion and can connect brands with the actresses.

But even if an actress selects one of your looks, there’s no guarantee that she’ll be photographed in it at the awards show, Meister notes. “I wouldn’t say that every actress has three looks ready to go, but she’ll have a ‘backup dress,'” Meister says. The actress wants to have a couple of choices in case one doesn’t fit perfectly or look as good as she hoped it would on the day of the event.